Valve to enter console market with “Steam Box”?

While Valve might be the king of distributing PC games online, it looks like the company might be branching out to our living rooms soon. The folks over at The Verge have reported that Valve is considering getting into the hardware business with a Steam set top box. However, Valve won’t be taking the traditional route of getting its console out of its does. Similar to what Google does with Android, the company will only provide Steam to manufacturers that will provide the hardware to run the platform.

At the moment, Valve is said to be working on a hardware spec and associated software which would make up the backbone of this “Steam Box.” So far, the basic specs of the “Steam Box” are said to be a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU. The game will be able to run any standard PC game, and will allow rival gaming services such as EA Origin to be loaded on to it. The whole reason for having this hardware baseline is so that developers will have a clear lifecycle for their products, with changes to the platform arriving every three to four years.

In addition to the console, a USB gaming controller that features swappable components so they can be configured depending on the game you’re playing might be in the works as well. There’s no telling if these rumors are true or not, but if they are the “Steam Box” might be unveiled at this year’s GDC. I guess we’ll just have to see about that. But if it turns out to be real, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo might have to worry. Head to the source link for more details about the rumored “Steam Box”.